PETS FOR BOYS AND GIRLS

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bred for so many years as home pets
that they are perfectly happy living in
cages—which certainly cannot be said
of linnets, blackbirds, thrushes and
other wildlings. Canaries are members
of the large finch family, and they, too,
thrive quite well in an aviary.

Autumn is the best time for the pur-
chase of a canary because then the
birds of the new season's hatching are
just on the market. If possible, you
should hear your bird sing, and he
ought to be a young cock with smooth
plumage, bright eyes and clean and
delicate feet and legs. Roughened legs
are usually a sign of age with all cage
birds.

Housing. Though round wire cages
are very popular, many fanciers prefer
a cage that is oblong in shape. The
floor must be sanded, but a great deal of
trouble can be saved if a piece of paper
is cut to fit the tray at the bottom and
the sand sprinkled over it. If the
living-room is illuminated with gas
the canary's cage should not hang
above the level of the burner.

Feeding, Canaries are fed chiefly on

canary seed and rape, such as is sold in
packets by cornchandlers. In addition
they may have a little ripe fruit, green-
stuff (especially groundsel, dandelion
leaves, clover and the seed-heads of
flowering grasses) and a piece of cuttle
fish bone between the wires of the cage,
or else a spray of millet sometimes for
a change. See that the drinking water
is changed every day.

To breed from canaries an unrelated
cock and hen should be established late
in March in a large breeding cage.
After a week or two a nesting pan and
nesting material (chopped wool, tow,
etc., such as is sold at pet shops) must
be provided. Four or five eggs are
laid to form a clutch and the period of
incubation is 14 days. Just before
the chicks are due, begin giving hard-
boiled egg finely minced and mixed with
biscuit crumbs. The parent birds are
left together all the time and will feed
the youngsters on this special food.
Not until the chicks can pick up seeds
for themselves should they be estab-
lished in a separate cage.

CATS have been kept as pets and also

Studio Lisa.
BROUGHT UP ON THE BOTTLE
When nannies are kept for their milk it very often happens that the kids have to be brought
up on the bottle, as is here depicted. An ordinary glass bottle is used with a special rubber
teat, and one would generally depend upon cow's milk for the purpose. Dipping one's finger
into miilr and getting the kid to suck it soon teaches these little animals how to feed,